Worm Shepherd find the missing link between slam and symphonic metal
IT WAS OBVIOUS from last year’s In The Wake Ov Sòl debut that Worm Shepherd weren’t in the business of fucking about. Wonderfully bleak, bold and relentlessly brutal to its filth-encrusted core, these Massachusettsbased whippersnappers – their drummer being just 17 years old at the time of its release – blurred the lines between blackened death metal and something more avowedly twisted. And less than 12 months later, the quintet’s follow-up arrives, proving to be eviscerating yet elevated in its sonic arsenal and aimed directly at the solar plexus.
Rising strings usher in a sprawling title track awash with haunting symphonics before the frantically elaborate Ov Sword And Nail opens up a nightmarish wormhole of lurching slams and fervent blasts, backed by Devin Duarte’s menagerie of primal howls and bowel-wrenching gutturals. Granted, there’s no denying the adrenaline rush delivered by the sonorous pound of Blood Kingdom and heads-down clatter of Wilted Moon, but it’s that resolute affinity for all things oppressive and atmospheric that could truly summon the dead.